Jake Brander was at a cross-roads in his career as an IT sales director when he discovered a way to track down unused IP addresses--a very finite resource. In 2016, as internet-connected devices flooded the marketplace, driving demand, he created a system to identify organizations with dormant IP addresses and built it into a booming brokerage. Then he scaled his Scottsdale, Arizona-based Brander Group to $15 million in revenue in its first year. He's grown it more than 10-fold since, twice landing on the Inc. 5000. In doing so, Brander, 38, has found that edge between fast growth and too-fast growth. --As told to Sydney Sladovnik
"The jump from 'This is never going to work' to 'Wow, this worked!' was swift. As a first-time entrepreneur focused on scaling quickly, I had to hire quickly too. The consequence of that was a team of people who didn't all fit.
"This industry is extremely technical and I also built my own client approach, where we flip the script so customers talk about their needs first, rather than us pitching. That can be hard to teach seasoned sales people who are used to the reverse. The combination of it all can be intimidating, and I had few tools to differentiate good standards from unrealistic expectations.
"We've had not-so-ideal employee turnover to show for it. We reached $230 million in revenue in 2022, but I lost half of my 14-person workforce. A trend became clear: When I scaled the most in revenue, I lost the most people. Ex-employees told me that the job made them anxious. Something needed to change: me.
"I'm good at initial teachings and setting a vision, but I'm not very effective with day-to-day management. And I don't necessarily need to be--I can hire for that role.
"My focus for 2023 was to offload stress from existing employees and be more methodical about hiring. I duplicated positions, gave more flexibility and time off, and personally trained every employee on the sales strategy. More important, I hired managers, which transformed the way people feel at work for the better.
"We ended the year with nearly $200 million in revenue, which is 15 percent less than the year prior. But we added nine new employees to make a 15-person staff, increased salaries, and added benefits like office parties. A few former employees are even returning. My battle with turnover taught me that slowing down can be good, but it's also essential to build a reliable team and strong business."
